Mitzvah Day is for everyone so get busy giving

Planting trees, baking for the hungry, taking babies to meet the housebound elderly, working in hospice gardens — all these are part of Mitzvah Day, which takes place tomorrow.

Founded in 2005, Mitzvah Day has become not just a Jewish but an interfaith and even a national institution. “It unites, it inspires, above all it is hands on,” was Ed Miliband’s endorsement. More than 35,000 people of different ages, faiths and denominations are coming together across the country to work on local projects.

What is a mitzvah? Ask a Jewish person and you’ll probably be told that it’s “a good deed”. That’s certainly true. The mitzvot translate the ideals of loving kindness, justice and respect for God’s world into everyday actions. They are the practitioner’s…